The Grateful Dead Part 14

[66] It is interesting also to note that a Viennese dramatist of our own day has adapted Ma.s.singer's drama, retaining a vague reminiscence of the thankful dead. The curious may see Der Graf von Charolais by Richard Beer-Hofmann, 1905.

[67] See pp. 1 and 2.

[68] P. 181.

[69] Abhandlungen der k. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1893, pp. 89-166. Reprinted, with some additional notes by the editor, in Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Wilhelm Hertz, ed. F. von der Leyen, 1905, pp. 156-277.

[70] The existing versions go back to the pseudo-Aristotelian De secretis secretorum or De regimine principum, which was taken from the Arabic in the twelfth century (Hertz, p. 92). It is probable, however, that the tale existed far earlier than this and came from India (Hertz, pp. 151-155).

[71] Pp. 115 ff.

[72] Two Asiatic parallels not cited by Hertz will serve to ill.u.s.trate the theme further. One of these is "The Story of Swet-Basanta" from Lal Behari Day, Folk-tales of Bengal, 1883, pp. 100 f. The hero is found by an elephant and made king of a land, where the successive sovereigns are killed every night mysteriously. He watches and sees something like a thread coming from the queen's nostrils. This proves to be a great serpent, which he kills, thus remaining as king. The other is from J. H. Knowles, Folk-tales of Kashmir, 1888, pp. 32 ff., "A Lach of Rupees for a Bit of Advice." A prince pays a lach of rupees for a paper containing four rules of conduct. His father exiles him for this extravagance. In his wanderings the prince finds a potter alternately laughing and crying because his son must soon marry a princess, who has to be wedded anew each night. So the prince marries the woman instead and kills two serpents that come from her nostrils, thus retaining the kingdom. In these two stories there is no question of aid coming to the hero; he is saved by his own watchfulness.

[73] Tobit, Danish III. (Andersen's tale), and Peele's Old Wives' Tale.

[74] For example, it appears in Schischmanoff's Legendes religieuses bulgares, 1896, pp. 194-201, side by side with our Bulgarian tale.

[75] I summarize from Kohler's reprint in Germania, iii. pp. 202 ff.

[76] Paspati's tale on pp. 605 ff. also has a dragon slain on a wedding night by a youth, who keeps watch. This single trait in a totally different setting must be borrowed from a Gypsy form of the simple or compound theme.

[77] See Annamite, Greek, Oliver, and Walewein. There is something approaching it in Rumanian I.

[78] Icelandic I.

[79] Simrock IV.

[80] See Hippe, p. 145.

[81] References to this story have been collected by G. Polivka, and printed in Archiv f. slav. Phil. xix. 251, in citing our Russian V. He says: "Vgl. Romanov, iv. S. 124, Nr. 65; Weryho, Pod. bialoruskie, S. 46; Khudyakov, i. Nr. 11, 12; Sadovnikov, S. 44, 310; Manzhura, 61; Dragomanov Mapor. Priep, S. 268 f.; Dowojna Sylwestrowicz, ii. 129 f.; Karlowicz, Nr. 19; Kolberg, viii. S. 138 f., Nr. 55, 56; xiv. S. 72 f., Nr. 16, 17; Ciszewski, i. Nr. 128; Kulda, iii. Nr. 14; Strohal, Nr. 18, 19; Kres, iv. S. 350, Nr. 19; Th. Vernaleken, Oesterr. K.H.M. S. 44 f.; Ul. Jahn, i. 92, 356; Prohle, Marchen fur die Jugend, S. 42; Wolf, D.H.M. 258 f.; Sebillot, Contes des marins, S. 38." As far as I have been able to ascertain, these references are all to the tale sketched above, uncompounded with The Grateful Dead. I must thank Professor Wiener for my knowledge of the Slavic forms, which he very generously examined for me as far as the books were available, viz. Romanov, Khudyakov, Sadovnikov, Manzura, Dragomanov, Sylwestrowicz, and Kolberg.

[82] See Hippe, pp. 145 f.

[83] For the test of friends.h.i.+p with an apple, see Kohler's notes in Gonzenbach, Sicil. Marchen, ii. 259 f., and in Arch. f. slav. Phil. v. 44 ff.

[84] Hippe is in error, however, when he says (p. 178) that the division is everywhere modified in the European variants. See Russian II., IV., V. and VI., Bulgarian, and Esthonian II. Moreover, I believe that Hippe's theory puts the cart before the horse--that the actual division is not so ancient a trait as it seems. See pp. 74, 75 below.

[85] See Hippe, p. 146.

[86] See chapter vii.

[87] See p. 47, note, above.

[88] P. 19.

[89] See Hippe, pp. 148 f.

[90] See note by Schott, p. 473, in which he gives evidence based on personal knowledge, and Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, p. 92. I have touched on the matter in Engl. Stud. x.x.xvi. 195-201.

[91] This trait is found not infrequently in other settings. See, for example, Vernaleken, Oesterreichische Kinder- und Hausmarchen, p. 141.

[92] This trait recalls Puss in Boots, which is otherwise compounded with The Grateful Dead. See preceding chapter, p. 42, and p. 70 below.

[93] See chapter vii.

[94] Kennedy says, p. 38: "In some versions of 'Jack the Master,'

etc., Jack the servant is the spirit of the dead man."

[95] Chapter vi.

[96] See chapter vii.

[97] The three rods with which the princess is flogged are found in Harz I. See pp. 69, 70 below.

[98] See p. 62, note 2.

[99] Pp. 10 f.

[100] Gayley, Representative English Comedies, 1903, pp. 333-384.

[101] P. 345.

[102] Pp. 176-178.

[103] Russian V. and VI. are, of course, exceptions, since the woman is there a vampire.

[104] See his scheme on page 181.

[105] See above, p. 1.

[106] See above, pp. 2 and 5.

[107] Pp. 170-175.

[108] P. 173.

[109] See also the school drama cited by Kohler, Germania III. 208 f. The elements of Der gute Gerhard, foreign to The Ransomed Woman, I have treated in the Publications of the Modern Lang. a.s.s. 1905, xx. 529-545.

[110] The same is true of the story related of St. Catharine, a.n.a.lyzed by Simrock, pp. 110-113, and cited by Hippe, p. 166, from Scala Celi, by Johannes Junior (Gobius), under Cast.i.tas. Hippe, as shown by his scheme on p. 181, places this under "Legendarische Formen mit Loskauf." As a matter of fact, it is plainly a specimen of The Calumniated Woman.

[111] Hippe's "Lithuanian II."

[112] Breton III., though placed here, has peculiar traits, which require special consideration.

[113] Kohler, followed by Hippe, p. 145, makes the hero live for fifteen years on the island, while Mme. Mijatovich gives the time as stated. As I have no knowledge of Servian, I cannot tell which is in the right. Hippe's a.n.a.lysis is otherwise faulty.

[114] See Hippe, p. 151.